On April 12, a meat processing plant in Sioux Falls, S.D., closed Smithfield Foods property, after hundreds of contract employees crown. The closure was almost unique. food processing plants are tinderboxes to infection because employees work nearby and often have to shout, spraying droplets that can be connected with the virus. Cargill, Tyson and other key players in the sector fell ill closed about two dozens of poultry, pork and beef processing centers in the following weeks as workers. In April and May, more than 17,000 industrial workers tested positive COVID-19 died and 91, according to the Center for the control and prevention of disease. The rippling effects to the grocery store, to fight certain products in stock, and, temporarily changed its menu in some places for beef shortage to make up restaurants like Wendy, the. At the same time, farmers were forced to kill animals that are not slaughtered. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimates that the production of beef and pork declined in April by 20% and 10%, respectively, over the previous year. processing plants emit carbon dioxide, and if their operations slow down, so do emissions. But the real benefit of the agricultural industry slowing climate must be treated to reduce livestock methane and nitrous oxide from the fields with fertilizers. If you add that in the US approximately 10% of all greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture. Too often Americans do not think about where the milk or beef originated in their shopping cart, let alone the carbon footprint of these products. This is because the US food system is so robust that shortages or peak-two conditions prices could cause consumers a closer look at the supply chain to take rare. The pandemic could be an exception, but, experts say, is not likely to have a lasting effect. “COVID-19 slowed us down a bit ‘and forces us to think about some of these things,” says Teng Lim, associate professor at the University of Missouri in commercial agriculture program. “But if we go back to what we usually do, we forget how things were before.” Meat processing has already started to recover in April, and consumers are willing to buy. In June, the USDA predicts that not only red meat and poultry production to recover from the dip Corona, will once again keep it growing and a record increase of 107 billion pounds in 2021, margins, companies agricultural and food processors have rationalized and specialized operations in all ways over the past decades. They use techniques that result for each animal to vaccinate the animals and improve their food to the most controversial practices, as the animals grow to be bigger for them in confined spaces packaging and slaughter them with cruelty. For example, in 1950 there were 25 million dairy cows in the United States there are 9 million today, but produce 60% more milk. This improves efficiency on the bottom line for farmers and reduces emissions glass of milk. However, agricultural emissions continue to rise overall, partly because larger animals today to eat more. In the case of cattle and dairy cows, which means more belching and cow dung, two major sources of methane gas. “We have to improve our efficiency,” says Frank Mitlöhner, professor of the department of animal sciences at the University of California, Davis. “This has some advantages, but it is also a problem. We have very few processing plants, and if one or two have a problem, it passes through the die. It ‘s very painful to look at.” With the foundations such as this was linked the system when the pandemic struck oscillation. So far it has mainly kept to the pandemic, but the number of COVID-19 cases in the US continues to rise, there is no certainty that do this forever. Argue, making the agricultural industry vulnerable in a pandemic it is also what it takes to address the issues in a good position. Larger companies are more likely to satisfy the law, and the land and the livestock under their control, the greater the effect their actions have. But so far it has not made nearly enough progress. Methane is clearly different from other greenhouse gases. It is about 25 times better at trapping heat than CO2 and. But animal product methane is part of a natural cycle, in contrast to CO2 from fossil fuels, such as a spin out from under the earth’s surface into the atmosphere. After the cow, methane breaks after about 10 years, they belched out; CO2, on the other hand, attacks for centuries. However, to reduce methane emissions is essential for maintaining the objectives globally agreed well above the pre-industrial level on the global warming below 2 ° C The best way to eliminate agricultural methane emissions would be to stop farming activities cows . But the eating habits change slowly, and in the meantime, the US agricultural sector is working on ways to reduce methane emissions, while providing the public the meat products offering expected. The industry is willing to apply the science that improve animal health and to reduce emissions, says Sara Place, Chief Sustainability Officer of Giant Elanco Animal Health. For example, US companies are increasingly adopting technology that captures methane that comes off ponds cow poop. The method-already widely in Canada and Europe includes covering the ponds with a coating for gas collection which is then passed to a plant, a fermenter system called several miles away, where it is converted into biogas, which can be used as fuel, vans run. For the control of emissions from the other end of the cow, additives such as algae, which inhibit the enzymes that produce methane in the digestive system of the cow can make the food makeup. Other additives have been shown in studies to alter the process of fermentation in the digestive tract of the vaccine, so that the cow burps hydrogen, a harmless gas, instead of methane. There is also ongoing research in genetics. If cows can be bred to produce more meat or milk, it could also be possible to emit less methane to reproduce. Some researchers and industry consultants, such as the location and Mitlöhner are excited about these technologies. But there are many critics. “Instead of constantly there the engineer so the problems with the animals a simpler solution: more plants to eat,” says Josh Balk, vice president of protection of agricultural animals to the US Humane Society Balk do not believe they can leave consumers campaign as to make massive shift of food. Instead, he says, the food industry for food help elevate plant by selling animal products coming in grocery stores, and use them as menu items such as White Castle, Burger King and other restaurant chains have begun to do with alternative meat plant-based bidding. Overall, the agricultural sector needs to reduce a lot of interest problems. If emissions continue to increase, the plants grown and crossed over decades, can optimize the food system the increase in global temperatures can not resist. Industry changes that address both issues and animal welfare can also reduce the risk of the next pandemic. COVID-19 did not start on farms, but the animals packed in closed rooms, the infection can spread more easily. Poultry, for example, is known to make people sick with bird flu. It makes no sense in a food system alone is responsible for the necessary changes to make. At the end of the day, we all need to eat, and consumers, processors, distributors and manufacturers alike a role in these foods to ensure it is available for all and done in a way that is sustainable for the planet and humanity. Image copyright by David McNew-Getty Images
The pandemic Crown broke big agriculture. That’s what the planet
